Category: Numbers

My first day in class in my Korean 2 one of my waterloos in studying Korean…numbers that is. Anyhow, I think attending a formal class really helps you get through those difficult study points. Well the big problem lies on memorizing these numbers to think that there is Native and Sino-Korean numbers (numbers borrowed from Chinese).

It was a surprise that in my first day of class, I was able to cope up with that challenge of memorizing at least the Sino Korean numbers. Since Korean uses numbers based on what they are counting or stating, I’ll share one practical use of Sino Korean numbers and this is when stating Telephone numbers.

공 (gong-0), 일 (il-1), 이(i- 2), 삼 (sam-3), 사 (sa-4), 오 (o-5), 육 (yuk-6), 칠 (chil-7), 팔 (pal-8), 구 (ku-9) and 십 (ship-10). These are the basics although 십 will not be used. So how do i say telephone numbers?

711-3852 is 칠 일 일에 삼 팔 오 이

(0918) 922- 0448 is 공구일 팔 구 이 이에 공 사 사 팔

The dash in the number is denoted by marker 에 right before the last number. So you might be hearing numbers with ‘e’ sound when being dictated with phone numbers.

Last posts was all about time, it’s going to be dates this time around. During my first few days of posting, I was really aiming for Hangul lesson a day… admittedly I couldn’t keep up with a daily posting due to an equally important thing –my bread and butter. Anyway, it was foolish for me to include dates in Korean in my post during those times as one of the features of blogging is to have date and time stamp of post.

Interestingly, when giving dates in Korean the rule is to start from the longest to the shortest time element. This is opposite how dates are relayed in English. For example, in English we would normally say:

I almost skipped this lesson. I have posted topics on counting years and weeks already. Months can be counted with either pure Native Korean or Sino-Korean numerals. Months(in duration) can be counted in Korean using 달 (dal, native) or 개월 (gae wol, Sino-Korean) as marker. So one month can be expressed as 한 달 (han dal) or 일 개월 (il gaewol).

In talking about months as in January, February March etc, knowing how to count 1 to 12 in Sino-Korean plus the constant marker 월 (wol) followed by optionally pronounced marker 달 (dal) is the key. In a mathematical expression the formula is <Sino-Korean Number>+ 월 + 달.

Below are the months in Korea, 달 is enclosed in parenthesis indicating it’s optionally pronounced:

Still on expressing time, in English we creatively express the time by using phrases like it’s 15 minutes past the hour of 10 in the morning or it’s 45 minutes before 11 in the morning. In Korean there is also some other ways of expressing time similar to that. 12:40am can be expressed:

아침 열두 시 사십 분 (achim yeoldu shi saship pun) the usual way but the other way is to say;

오후 한 시 일십 전 (ohu han shi ilship cheon) which is actually 20 minutes before 1 o’clock in the afternoon literally this is 12:40am. This is how to say it in Korean similar to the italcized numeral expression above.

We also usually hear stressed on time expression such as at exactly 1:30. Thi is expressed as 정각(에) cheonggak(e) in Korea as such 한 시 삼십 정각에 (han shi samship cheonggake) is ‘at exactly 1:30’.

For the purpose of telling time 시 (shi) pertains to hour or o’clock but this cannot stand alone as mentioned in my previous post on markers. For hours pertaining to duration or time in general, 시간 (shican) is used.

Telling the time (시간 – shican) in Korean is a little complicated especially if you are not familiar with the Native and Sino-Korean Numbers. Generally, in expressing time in Korea, the Native Korean numbers are used for the hours while for the minutes the Sino-Korean is used. Basic formula would be:

Hours: Native Korean number followed by -시 (shi) which stands for o’clock (this is to mark the hour)

Minutes: Sino-Korean number followed by -분 (pun) which stands for minutes

So to say 1:40, it’s 한 시 사십 분 (han shi saship pun). There is also a marker used to express half past an hour. Like when you normally would state in English half past 12 o’clock, half past the said hour is expressed using the marker 반 (ban). Therefore this will be 열두 시 반 (yeoldu shi ban) in Korean.

To be more precise in expressing the time, AM (in the morning) and PM (in the afternoon) is normally added after the time. While in English this indicators are placed after the hour, in Korean, this can be found in the beginning of the time expression:

This post reminds me of the song from my favorite Korean R&B singer 일년 이면 (ilyon imyon) which literally means One Year Passed but the English title is official A Year Has Passed. Learning about numbers made me realize that 일년 does no necessarily mean year alone.

Anyway similar to how weeks are counted, both Native and Sino-Korean numbers can be used to count years, the only difference is the marker. For Native Korean numbers it is followed by the marker 해 (hae) and for Sino-Korean number it’s 년 (nyon). So to say 2 years in Korean one may be able to hear 두해 (du hae) or 이년 (inyon).

However, it’s more common to hear counting of years using the Sino-Korean numbers rather than the native ones when its more than 2 years.

Counting weeks allows both the use of the Native and Sino-Korean numbers although the latter is preferred. Numeral expression for weeks can be as follows:

주일 (ju-il) which is literally weeks

주간 (ju-kan) means similar to in weeks time or

So to say one week, we can either use 일 주일 (il ju-il) or 한 주일 (han ju-il). Replace 한 with 세 or 삼 then you have 3 weeks in Native and Sino-Korean respectively. Remember the rule with 하나, 둘, 셋 and 넷 when used before counter/noun it counts (the last sound is dropped). Another tip is that when counting weeks the Sino-Korean way, removing 일 (il) would leave 주 (ju) and it will still mean week such that 일 주일 would still mean one week even if its 일 주.

For the expression like:

Q: How long will it take to finish the project?

A: In four weeks time.

The answer (A) can be expressed as 네 주간 있어요 (Ne jukan issoyo). This expression is more suitable for stating limit or scope using week as period of measure as in completion of something.